This invention relates to facilitating a determination of the distance a guidewire extends into, for example a vascular vessel or a catheter.
It is old to use electro-chemical equipment, for example, such as sold by Marking Methods, Inc. for providing indicia on medical equipment, including permanent implants such as pacemaker cases with serial numbers for traciablity. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,668 to Lundgren there is disclosed a cholangiography catheter having substantially equally spaced indicia such that the surgeon may determine the extent of insertion of the catheter in a cystic duct while U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,491 to Evans discloses providing circular bands on a catheter with each band being distinguished from other bands by color. U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,091 to Gustavsson in column 1 discloses problems incurred in providing readable graduations on a catheter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,313 to Young discloses a urethral catheter having an outer sleeve member and an inner tubular member that is insertable into the sleeve member and has a section with calibrated markings, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,046 also discloses providing indicia on a catheter.
Physicians and other medical personal have had need to know the distance that a guidewire extends into a vascular vessel, catheter or other medical instrumentation. In order to help facilitating overcoming this problem, this invention has been made.